Lovecraft (timeline)

A biographical timeline of known events in Lovecraft's life:

Timeline

Juvenalia

A period of Lovecraft's troubled youth, marked by somewhat naive macabre tales of mystery and horror in imitation of e.g. Edgar Allan Poe. His interests in weird fiction, mythology and folklore, and science are precociously developed in this period.

• 1880s and before
  • 1883 - Sonia Haft Shafirkin (Lovecraft's future wife) is borne in Ukraine.
  • 1886 - Adolphe de Castro, future Lovecraft collaborator, collaborates with Ambrose Bierce on the translation of a novel he claimed as his own; de Castro would later use this experience as the foundation for the autobiography and short story collection he would approach Lovecraft with.
• 1890s
  • 1890 - (Aug 20) Lovecraft is born in his family home at 454 (then 194) Angell Street, Providence, RI
  • 1892? - Lovecraft's father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, begins acting strangely and saying disturbing things.
  • 1893 - (Apr) Winfield Scott Lovecraft falls acutely insane in Chicago, Illinois during a business trip, and will spend the rest of his life institutionalized.
  • 1894? - Lovecraft is raised by his aunts and grandparents Robie and Whipple Van Buren Phillips in the family home until the grandfather's death. By all accounts, Lovecraft is a prodigy: reciting poetry and reading and writing by age 2.
  • 1896 - Lovecraft's maternal grandmother Robie Phillips dies, sending the family into "a gloom from which it never recovered". Lovecraft begins having nightmares about "Nightgaunts".
  • 1897 - Lovecraft writes "The Little Glass Bottle (fiction)"
  • 1897? - Lovecraft writes "The Noble Eavesdropper (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
  • 1898 - Winfield Scott Lovecraft dies, diagnosed with general paresis (late stage syphilis).
  • 1898 - Young Lovecraft has discovered the sciences, and is particularly fascinated by chemistry and astronomy; his exploration of anatomy, and human sexuality, leaves him revolted by the subject.
  • 1898 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Mystery of the Grave-Yard (fiction)" and "The Secret Cave or John Lees Adventure (fiction)"
  • 1898-1902 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Haunted House (fiction)", "John, the Detective (fiction)", and "The Secret of the Grave (fiction)" (all lost, believed nonextant)
  • 1899 - Sonia Haft Shafirkin marries Samuel Greene, reputedly a "brutish" character.
• 1900s
  • 1890s-1900s? - Lovecraft's health is reputedly shaky, leaving him absent from school through much of his childhood. Lovecraft does seem to enjoy school, and does have close friends, with whom he is said to have played games of Arabian Nights (in which he would take the name "Abdul Alhazred"), and cops and robbers (in which Lovecraft apparently played with a real - unloaded - revolver). Acquaintances of the family describe Lovecraft's mother as overprotective and overindulgent.
  • 1900 - Whipple's businesses begin to suffer, perhaps due in part to Whipple's depression and declining health. Whipple is forced to begin dismissing servants.
  • 1902 - Young Lovecraft, fascinated by astronomy, makes his first exploration into the world of amateur journalism, publishing articles in his own self-published astronomy newsletter.
  • 1902 - Young Lovecraft writes "The Mysterious Ship (fiction)"
  • 1902 - Florence Carol Greene (later Carol Weld), Lovecraft's step-daughter, is borne.
  • 1904 - Whipple's businesses, already struggling, suffer catastrophic failures. Whipple Van Buren Phillips dies, and the family, discovering the extent of the estate's mismanagement, is forced to move to a cheaper house down the street to 598 Angell Street. Lovecraft would later describe this as one of the darkest times of his life, a point where he saw no use in living any more.
  • 1904-1908 - Lovecraft continues to report health problems that prevent him from attending high school regularly, though he claims to enjoy school, and reportedly has a group of close friends. Lovecraft would resume amateur journalism, self-publishing journals of astronomy and chemistry.
  • 1905 - Lovecraft writes "The Beast in the Cave (fiction)"
  • 1907 - Lovecraft writes "The Picture (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
  • 1908 - Lovecraft writes "The Alchemist (fiction)"

Teenage Breakdown and Recovery

Lovecraft's doesn't write much fiction in this period, but instead appears to be struggling to maintain some grip on normality following a strange nervous breakdown and withdrawal from society; he seems to turn to amateur journalism and editorial writing as a long-distance substitute for social contact. The majority of Lovecraft's social contact during this period seems to be either within his family - especially with his mother and aunts - or through the distance of editorial correspondence. Lovecraft's writing during this period seems to have taken on a marked, self-conscious, aggressive, stridently xenophobic and "conservative" - or more accurately reactionary - character.

• 1900s
  • 1908-1913 - Not much is known about this period of Lovecraft's life. Acquaintances of the family say that Lovecraft's mother Susie describes young Lovecraft as "so hideous that he hid from everyone and did not like to walk upon the streets where people could gaze on him." Lovecraft claims to the contrary that she is "a positive marvel of consideration", but would also later describe her as a "touch-me-not mother" who avoided physical contact with him through much of his childhood, while his wife Sonia seems to have gotten the impression that Lovecraft's mother simultaneously overbearing/suffocating and "touch-me-not"; one acquaintance of the Lovecrafts in this era claims that what might seem like loud nocturnal quarrels between mother and son were actually reenactments of scenes from Shakespeare, which the Lovecrafts apparently enjoyed together. Susie apparently would be frequently seen riding through Providence by streetcar, and seems to have attended women's suffrage meetings during this period.
  • 1908-1913? - Lovecraft meets C.M. Eddy through their mothers' mutual acquaintanceship at Women's Suffrage meetings?
  • 1908 - Lovecraft suffers a nervous breakdown and withdraws from school, his hopes of attending Brown University dashed. The exact nature of the breakdown is unknown, but a combination of depression and physical illness are believed likely.
• 1910s
  • 1911 - Lovecraft takes an interest in pulp literature and criticism, an interest that appears to have pulled Lovecraft back into the public. His letters to editors begin appearing in pulp magazines such as Argosy.
  • 1912 - Lovecraft's first professionally published poem, "Providence in 2000 A.D.", is written and published. Lovecraft's writing in this period seems to have taken an Anglophilic and xenophobic turn.
  • 1913 - Lovecraft begins a protracted "flame war" in the Argosy editorial page in which Lovecraft appears to have enjoyed "trolling" then prominent writer Fred Jackson and his supporters, particularly enjoying exchanges with John Russell, who would write rebuttals to Lovecraft in verse.
  • 1914 - Lovecraft's editorials attract the attention of the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), which invites Lovecraft to join; Lovecraft accepts the invitation. Lovecraft in this period develops a taste for "Amateur Publication" vs. "Commercial Publication", and Lovecraft's xenophobia heavily influences his criticism of "low-brow" literature, slang, and Americanisms in writing, in favor of classical forms of British English.
  • 1915 - Lovecraft meets Winifred Virginia Jackson in the UAPA. Over time, the two grow close, and there are rumors of a (perhaps platonic) romance between them.
  • 1915 - Lovecraft is elected to first vice-president of the UAPA.
  • 1916 - Samuel Greene dies, apparently by suicide. Sonia Green joins the independent middle class as a successful milliner.
  • 1916 - "The Alchemist" is published in an amateur journal.
  • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (fiction)"
  • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "Sweet Ermengarde (fiction)"
  • 1917 - Lovecraft writes "The Tomb (fiction)" and "Dagon (fiction)"
  • 1917 - Lovecraft's critical/editorial writing has taken a political turn with the beginning of World War I, and he begins criticizing American reluctance to join the war in support of England. Lovecraft attempts to join the Army, and passes the physical requirements, but his mother Susie intervenes.
• 1917-1918, Winifred V. Jackson serves as Lovecraft's second Vice-President of the UAPA.
  • 1918 - Lovecraft writes "The Mystery of Murdon Grange (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
  • 1918 - (May?) Lovecraft writes "Polaris (fiction)"
  • 1918 - Lovecraft's term as vice-president at UAPA ends, and Lovecraft begins a position as Chairman of the Department of Public Criticism for the organization.
  • 1918+? - Lovecraft's future step-daughter Carol Weld eventually becomes a successful journalist, marries, and drifts out of Sonia Greene's life after a tense relationship; Sonia Greene would rarely mention her.
  • Before 1920? - Lovecraft appears to met Anna Helen Crofts through the UAPA, but details of this meeting or their relationship are a mystery.

Mother's Breakdown and Death, Sonia

The impact of his mother's breakdown and death at first appears to be devastating, but Lovecraft almost immediately seems to recover from it, emerging from isolation to travel, and make new friends outside of the local, aristocratic, "white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant" social comfort zone one imagines his parents, maternal grandparents, and aunts to have encouraged and imposed. Lovecraft's new friends in this period following his mother's death would include many people his aunts would likely not have approved of: immigrants from places like Ukraine and Hungary, women, anarchists, Jews, homosexuals, eccentric intellectuals, etc. Lovecraft would meet and very quickly marry Sonia Greene Lovecraft, a Ukrainian Jew several years older then himself, who had already been married once, already had a daughter with whom she seems to have grown distant, and who also seems to have had a rather strong will and personality, suggesting perhaps a replacement for a domineering mother. Lovecraft would move immediately into Sonia's Brooklyn apartment, seeming at first to look forward to the new city, but within a few years clearly growing disenchanted with the city and with the marriage. This appears to be the first period of Lovecraft's Dreamlands tales, largely replacing the more macabre early horror stories in this era, developing more sophisticated hints of a "weird" and "cosmic" theme in one of the first of Lovecraft's bursts of creativity.

• 1910s
  • 1918-1919 - (Winter) Lovecraft's mother, Susie, appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, reportedly becoming disoriented and excited, seeing "weird and fantastic creatures that rushed out from behind buildings and from corners at dark." The exact nature of her illness is unclear, but probably involve severe depression and strain from the family's financial situation. By March 1919, Susie is committed to the same hospital where her husband is institutionalized, and Lovecraft, learning that she would likely never be released, is devastated, reporting another dark time in his life at which he saw little use in living; Lovecraft would visit and write letters to her often.
  • 1918-1919 - Lovecraft writes "The Green Meadow (fiction)" with Winifred V. Jackson
  • 1919 - Lovecraft seems to have become more outgoing following his mother's hospitalization, and would begin taking trips to meet the friends he made in amateur journalism.
  • 1919 - Lovecraft writes "Beyond the Wall of Sleep (fiction)"
  • 1919 - Lovecraft writes "Memory (fiction)"
  • 1919 - Lovecraft writes "Old Bugs (fiction)"
  • 1919 - (August) Lovecraft discovers the early fiction of Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, and becomes a fan.
  • 1919 - (Sep 16) Lovecraft writes "The Transition of Juan Romero (fiction)"
  • 1919 - (Oct 19) Lovecraft travels to Boston MA to attend a reading by Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.
  • 1919 - (Nov) Lovecraft writes "The White Ship (fiction)"
  • 1919 - (Dec 3) Lovecraft writes "The Doom that Came to Sarnath (fiction)"
  • 1919 - (Dec) Lovecraft writes "(The Statement of Randolph Carter (fiction)"
• 1920s
  • 1920 - Lovecraft meets Frank Belknap Long at an amateur writer's convention.
  • 1920 - (Jan 28) Lovecraft writes "The Terrible Old Man (fiction)"
  • 1920? - Lovecraft writes "The Street (fiction)"
  • 1920? - Lovecraft writes "Life and Death (fiction)" (lost, believed nonextant)
  • 1920 - Lovecraft writes "Facts concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (fiction)"
  • 1920 - Lovecraft writes "The Tree (fiction)"
  • 1920 - Lovecraft writes "Poetry and the Gods (fiction)" with Anna Helen Crofts
  • 1920 - Lovecraft writes "The Temple (fiction)"
  • 1920 - (Jun 15) Lovecraft writes "The Cats of Ulthar (fiction)" .
  • 1920 - (early Nov) Lovecraft writes "Celephaïs".
  • 1920 - (16 Nov) Lovecraft writes "From Beyond (fiction)"
  • 1920 - (early Dec) Lovecraft writes "Nyarlathotep (fiction)"
  • 1920 - (Dec 12) Lovecraft writes "The Picture in the House (fiction)"
  • 1920-1921 - Lovecraft writes "The Crawling Chaos (fiction) with Winifred V. Jackson
  • 1920-1921 - Lovecraft writes "Ex Oblivione (fiction)"
  • 1921 - Lovecraft writes "The Outsider (fiction)"
  • 1921 - (Jan) Lovecraft writes "The Nameless City (fiction)"
  • 1921 - (Feb 28) Lovecraft writes "The Quest of Iranon (fiction)"
  • 1921 - (Mar) Lovecraft writes "The Moon-Bog (fiction)"
  • 1921 - (May 24) Susie Lovecraft dies from complications during gall-bladder surgery.
  • 1921 - (Jul) Lovecraft attends an amateur writer's convention in Boston MA, and meets Sonia Greene in person. Sonia seems to have taken an instant liking to Lovecraft, primarily for his intellect, and would pursue a romance with him, "stealing him away" (as she says) from Winifred V. Jackson, who seems to have dropped into the background of Lovecraft's life in this era. Sonia would later note that she "took the initiative in virtually every aspect" of her courtship and relationship with Lovecraft, attributing his passive participation to living his formative years under the domination of his mother and aunts.
  • 1921 - (Aug) Lovecraft writes "The Other Gods (fiction)"
  • 1921-1922 (Sep–mid) Lovecraft writes "Herbert West - Reanimator (fiction)"
  • 1921 - (Dec) Lovecraft writes "The Music of Erich Zann (fiction)"
  • 1922 - (Mar) Lovecraft writes "Hypnos (fiction)"
  • 1922 - (Jun 5) Lovecraft writes "What the Moon Brings (fiction)"
  • 1922 - (Jun) Lovecraft writes "Azathoth (fiction)"
  • 1922 - (Jun or Jul) Sonia Greene begins writing "The Horror at Martin's Beach" and "Four O'Clock (fiction)" at Lovecraft's suggestion, encouragement and help. It was during the writing of "The Horror at Martin's Beach" that Sonia kisses Lovecraft for the first time.
  • 1922 - (Sep) Lovecraft writes "The Hound (fiction)"
  • 1922 - (Aug 12) Lovecraft writes his first fan letter to Clark Ashton Smith, beginning a lasting friendship between the writers.
  • 1922 - (Nov) Lovecraft writes "The Lurking Fear (fiction)"
  • 1923 - Lovecraft writes "Ashes (fiction)", "The Loved Dead (fiction)", and "The Ghost-Eater (fiction)" with C.M. Eddy, jr.
  • 1923 - Lovecraft's first professionally published story, "Dagon (fiction)" , appears in Weird Tales", and attracts attention from pulp fans. The informal "Lovecraft Circle" begins to form as Lovecraft begins correspondence with other amateur writers of fiction in earnest.
  • 1923 - (Aug–Sep) Lovecraft writes "(The Rats in the Walls (fiction)"
  • 1923 - (Sep) Lovecraft writes "The Unnamable (fiction)"
  • 1923 - (Oct) Lovecraft writes "The Festival (fiction)"
  • 1924 - Lovecraft makes diverse new friends in New York, including the so-called "Kalem Club", who encourage his writing, and a number of Lovecraft's stories, notably the early Dreamlands tales, are published.
  • 1924 - Lovecraft meets Samuel Loveman through the "Kalem Club".
  • 1924 - (Feb) Lovecraft is offered editorship of Weird Tales, but turns it down claiming that he doesn't wish to leave New York for Chicago IL, though he may have had other, more complicated reasons, surrounding a profound lack of faith in the market for quality weird fiction.
  • 1924 - (Feb?) Lovecraft is contacted about ghost-writing a story for famous magician and spiritualist debunker, Harry Houdini.
  • 1924 - (late Feb) Lovecraft writes "Under the Pyramids (fiction)" with Harry Houdini
  • 1924 - (Mar 3) Lovecraft has lost the original draft of "Under the Pyramids". Lovecraft marries Sonia, honeymoons in Philadelphia PA, and moves to 793 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn NY. Sonia will spend the honeymoon with Lovecraft, retyping "Under the Pyramids".

Dreamlands stories, are published in Weird Tales.

• • 1924 - (Oct 16–19) Lovecraft writes "The Shunned House (fiction)"
  • 1924? - Lovecraft writes "Deaf, Dumb, and Blind (fiction)" with C.M. Eddy, jr.

Troubled Marriage and New York

This was a time of notable trouble in Lovecraft's adult life: his marriage is disintegrating, Sonia has lost her middle-class security and is forced to move out to follow work, Lovecraft seems unwilling to move from New England to join her or to accept job offers outside of New York, the couple's financial situation is dire and their health is deteriorating, and Lovecraft loses everythign but the clothing he was wearing in a break-in at his Red Hook apartment. Lovecraft produces little fiction in this era, and what fiction he does produce takes on a bitter, xenophobic cast.

• 1920s
  • 1924? - Sonia loses her financial assets in a bank failure, loses her shop, falls ill, and the Lovecrafts fall on financial difficulties.
  • 1925 - (Jan 1) Sonia moves to Cincinnati OH and then Cleveland OH for new employment, and would soon work on the road, rarely returning to New York. Lovecraft, unable to find work and barely able to afford food, moves into a tiny, cheap apartment at 169 Clinton Street, Brooklyn NY on the edge of Red Hook; shortly after his arrival, Lovecraft returns to his apartment to discover a robbery leaving him only the clothes he was wearing, fueling Lovecraft's resentment of New York. Lovecraft would spend the remainder of his time in New York supported by the remnants of a small inheritance and a small weekly allowance from Sonia, barely sufficient to avoid starvation; Sonia would spend a night or two every month with Lovecraft. The marriage has begun disintegrating by this time.
• 1925 Lovecraft meets Wilfred Blanch Talman through the amateur press. Talman would later collaborate with Lovecraft on a story, and design Lovecraft's personal bookplate.
  • 1925 (Aug 1-2) Lovecraft writes "The Horror at Red Hook (fiction)"
  • 1925 (Aug 11) Lovecraft writes "He (fiction)"
  • 1925 (Sep 18) Lovecraft writes "In the Vault (fiction)"
  • 1926? - Lovecraft writes "The Descendant (fiction)"
  • 1926 - (Mar) Lovecraft writes "Cool Air (fiction)"
  • 1926 - Harry Houdini contacts Lovecraft with plans for Lovecraft and C.M. Eddy to ghost-write a treatise on superstition, The Cancer of Superstition (essay), which would have provided some much-needed income for Lovecraft. Lovecraft and Eddy begin work on the manuscript.

Return to Providence

By this time, Lovecraft seems to have abandoned his experiment with New York and with marriage, returning to Providence. Lovecraft again seems to have taken up travel, and visiting with correspondents he'd previously only written to. Lovecraft's writing takes on a far more cosmic character at this time (perhaps inspired by both Lovecraft's evolving perspective, and his discovery of a Theosophical book from which Lovecraft, who regarded it as balderdash, seems to have nevertheless found inspirational in its ludicrous but imaginative hyper-human scope in time and space, leading to one of Lovecraft's most creative and productive periods of writing; however, Lovecraft seems to suffer from a lack of motivation and encouragement during this period for actually publishing anything, withdrawing at the slightest hint of criticism, and failing to even try submitting some of his finer and more imaginative stories for consideration for publication.

• 1920s
  • 1926 - Lovecraft abandons New York, returning to Providence to move with his aunt Lillian Clark to 10 Barnes Street Providence RI until 1933, at Lillian's suggestion. It seems that Sonia Greene Lovecraft would have moved with Lovecraft, except there was some disagreement with Lovecraft's aunts, either over Sonia's independent career as anything other than housewife (apparently "scandalous" to Lovecraft's aunts and their friends), or perhaps over the fact of Sonia's Jewish ancestry (apparently even more "scandalous" to Lovecraft's aunts and their friends). Whatever the case, Sonia was not welcomed to move in with Lovecraft, and Lovecraft's aunts thus appear to have played a large part in driving a further and final wedge between the couple, while there seems to have been little or no evidence that Lovecraft himself had ever done much contradict his aunts' wishes in the matter.
  • 1926 - (Jun 16) Lovecraft's first reference to Theosophy appears in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith: "I've also been digesting something of vast interest as background or source material--which has belatedly introduced me to a cycle of myth with which I have reason to believe you are particularly familiar--i.e., the Atlantis-Lemuria tales, as developed by modern occultists & theosophical charlatans. Really, some of these hints about the lost "City of the Golden Gates" & the shapeless monsters of archaic Lemuria are ineffably pregnant with fantastic suggestion; & I only wish I could get hold of more of the stuff. What I have read is The Story of Atlantis & the Lost Lemuria, by W. Scott Elliot." (SL2.58)
  • 1926 - Lovecraft begins correspondence with Donald Wandrei, sparking a lengthy friendship.
  • 1926 - (Summer) Lovecraft writes "The Call of Cthulhu (fiction)"
  • 1926 - (Jul-Oct) Lovecraft writes "Two Black Bottles (fiction)" with Wilfred Blanch Talman
  • 1926 - (Oct 31) Harry Houdini dies. Houdini's widow does not wish to pursue the project, and Lovecraft abandons it; the manuscript is presumed lost.
  • 1926 - Lovecraft writes "Pickman's Model (fiction)"
  • 1926 - Lovecraft writes "The Silver Key (fiction)"
  • 1926 - (Nov 9) Lovecraft writes "The Strange High House in the Mist (fiction)"
  • 1926-1927? - (Autumn? 1926–22 January 1927) Lovecraft writes "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)"
  • 1927? - Adolphe De Castro approaches Lovecraft for ghost-writing services with a rough collection of short stories and a (mostly fictitious) autobiographical account of de Castro's collaboration with Ambrose Bierce, offering to pay Lovecraft later after the stories are sold.
  • 1927 - (early) Zealia Bishop is introduced to Lovecraft by Samuel Loveman after she asks Loveman for writing advice on romance fiction; Lovecraft's advice is awkward, at best, until Bishop tries her hand at weird fiction.
  • 1927 Donald Wandrei visits Lovecraft in Providence.
  • 1927 - Lovecraft writes "History of the Necronomicon (fiction)"
  • 1927 - (Jan-Mar) Lovecraft writes "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (fiction)"
  • 1927 - (Mar) Lovecraft writes "The Colour out of Space (fiction)"
  • 1927 - Lovecraft writes a fragment of "The Thing in the Moonlight (fiction)" in a letter to Donald Wandrei; the fragment would be "completed" with a short framing device by J. Chapman Miske in 1941.
  • 1927 - (Nov 2) Lovecraft writes "The Very Old Folk (fiction)"
  • 1927 - Lovecraft writes "The Last Test (fiction)" with Adolphe de Castro , who cheats Lovecraft on the fee, prompting an angry letter from Lovecraft.
  • 1928? - Lovecraft writes "Ibid (fiction)"
  • 1928 - Lovecraft writes "The Curse of Yig" with Zealia Bishop
  • 1928 - (Summer) Lovecraft writes "The Dunwich Horror (fiction)"
  • 1928 - Lovecraft travels to Brooklyn to meet Sonia and attempt to mend the failing marriage (perhaps at her request?), but this attempt appears to have gone nowhere.
  • 1929 - (mid) Lovecraft writes "The Electric Executioner (fiction)" with Adolphe de Castro , this time getting paid in full in advance for his work.
  • 1929 - At Sonia's insistence, Lovecraft agrees to an amicable separation; Sonia files for divorce. Lovecraft would fail to sign the papers making the divorce legal.
  • 1929-1930 - (Dec-early) Lovecraft writes "The Mound (fiction)" with Zealia Bishop
• 1930s
  • 1930s? - Young R.H. Barlowe, a fan of fantasy literature and especially of Clark Ashton Smith, begins correspondence with Lovecraft, beginning a life-long (though tragically brief) friendship.
  • 1930 - Lovecraft meets and befriends Henry S. Whitehead.
  • 1930 Lovecraft writes "Medusa's Coil (fiction)" with Zealia Bishop ; Lovecraft's collaboration with Bishop may have been strained by this point, due to Depression-era financial troubles that presented difficulties with Bishop's ability to publish the previous revision, and pay Lovecraft for his work.
  • 1931 - (Feb-Mar) Lovecraft writes At the Mountains of Madness (fiction)
  • 1930 - (Apr-May) Lovecraft visits South Carolina.
  • 1930 - (early Sep) Lovecraft visits Quebec.
  • 1930 - (Feb-Sep) Lovecraft writes "The Whisperer in Darkness (fiction)"
  • 1930 - (Aug) Robert E. Howard writes a fan letter praising a reprint of Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls", beginning a friendship that would last the rest of REH's life.
  • 1931 - (summer) Lovecraft visits Henry S. Whitehead for three weeks in Florida, and begins work on collaboration.
  • 1931 - (late) Lovecraft writes "The Trap (fiction)" with Henry S. Whitehead
  • 1931 - (Nov-Dec) Lovecraft writes "The Shadow over Innsmouth (fiction)"
  • 1932 - (Jan–Feb) Lovecraft writes "The Dreams in the Witch House (fiction)"
  • 1932 - (mid) Lovecraft is contacted by Hazel Heald for ghost-writing service. Heald apparently tries unsuccessfully to flirt with Lovecraft.
  • 1932 - (mid) Lovecraft writes "The Man of Stone (fiction)" with Hazel Heald
  • 1932 - (mid) Lovecraft writes "Winged Death (fiction)" with Hazel Heald
  • 1932 Donald Wandrei visits Lovecraft in Providence.
  • 1932 - Lovecraft visits New Orleans, LA and on the recommendation of Robert E. Howard meets E. Hoffman Price, a long-time follower of Lovecraft in the amateur press, beginning a lengthy correspondence.
  • 1932 - (early Sep) Lovecraft visits Quebec.
  • 1932 - (Oct) Lovecraft writes "The Horror in the Museum (fiction)" with Hazel Heald
  • 1932 - Lovecraft's aunt Lillian Clark dies.
  • 1932 - (nov) Henry S. Whitehead dies while Lovecraft is collaborating on "The Bruise (fiction)"; it's possible that, between this and the death of Lovecraft's aunt Lillian the same year, and the original text seems to have been lost; a purported version of the story matching the description of the original is produced many later by August Derleth in his "posthumous collaboration" era, perhaps the original or perhaps the original as finished by Derleth, but some scholars suggest the story as published was entirely Derleth's.
  • 1932-1933 - (Oct-Apr) Lovecraft writes "Through the Gates of the Silver Key (fiction)" with E. Hoffmann Price
  • 1932-1933 - E. Hoffman Price and/or Lovecraft propose an extended collaboration, but nothing ever comes of it.
  • 1932-1933 - Lovecraft begins correspondence with Dwane W. Rimel.
  • 1933 - Sonia moves to California.

Decline and Death

By this point of the 1930s, Lovecraft's separation from Sonia Lovecraft seems have been complete; perhaps just as important at this point is that his mother and one of his aunts have died as well, and, in spite of being forced to live with one or another of his aunts due to financial trouble, Lovecraft seems to have begun to test his independence from strong women at this point, with "The Thing on the Doorstep" reading suspiciously like a thinly-veiled and eye-raising autobiographical commentary on his own passive role in a marriage to a woman who seems to have felt obligated to take all of the initiative in every aspect of their marriage. Lovecraft's fiction continues its trend toward the cosmic during this time. This period would be short-lived and relatively unproductive, as Lovecraft's health had been failing by this point, and the author would be dead before the decade was over.

• 1930s
  • 1933 - (May) Lovecraft moves with his aunt Annie Gamwell to his final home, an apartment at 65 Prospect Street, Providence RI; this will be his home until Mar 10 1937.
  • 1933 - Young Robert Bloch writes fan letters to Lovecraft asking for writing advice, beginning a friendship between the two writers, and launching Bloch's extensive writing career.
  • 1933 - William Lumley, an elderly and eccentric mystic, write to Lovecraft, expressing the opinion that Lovecraft had actually tapped into a source of real occult wisdom. Lumley's correspondence would lead to a charitable collaboration from Lovecraft.
  • 1933 - Lovecraft writes "Out of the Aeons (fiction)" with Hazel Heald
  • 1933 - Lovecraft writes "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast (fiction)" and "The Slaying of the Monster (fiction)" with R.H. Barlow
  • 1933 - (Aug 21–24) Lovecraft writes "The Thing on the Doorstep (fiction)"
  • 1932 - (early Sep) Lovecraft visits Quebec.
  • 1933 - (Oct) Lovecraft writes "The Evil Clergyman (fiction)"
  • 1933 - (late) Lovecraft writes "The Book (fiction)"
  • 1933-1934 Forrest J. Ackerman begins correspondence with a supportive Lovecraft and R.H. Barlowe during a flame war over the merits of Clark Ashton Smith's fiction.
  • 1934 - (May) Lovecraft writes "The Tree on the Hill (fiction)" and "The Sorcery of Aphlar (fiction)" with Duane W. Rimel
  • 1934 - Lovecraft visits R.H. Barlow in Florida.
  • 1934 - (Jun) Lovecraft writes "The Battle that Ended the Century (fiction)" with R.H. Barlowe
  • 1933-1935 - Lovecraft writes "The Horror in the Burying-Ground (fiction)" with Hazel Heald
  • 1934-1935 - (Nov–Mar) Lovecraft writes "The Shadow out of Time (fiction)"
  • 1935 - Lovecraft visits R.H. Barlow in Florida.
  • 1935 - (Jan) Lovecraft writes "Till A' the Seas (fiction)" with R.H. Barlow
  • 1935 - (early) Lovecraft writes "The Disinterment (fiction)" with Duane W. Rimel
  • 1935 - (Mar) Young Kenneth Sterling, a fan of Lovecraft's stories and a neighbor of the Lovecrafts in RI, visits Lovecraft at the nearby home, beginning a short correspondence that would lead to a collaboration, before Sterling, a young prodigy, entered college at 15 and the writers parted ways.
  • 1935 - (Jun) Lovecraft writes "Collapsing Cosmoses (fiction)" with R.H. Barlow
  • 1935 - (Aug) Lovecraft writes the round-robin collaboration "The Challenge from Beyond (fiction)" with C.L. Moore; A. Merritt; Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long at the insistence of editor Julius Schwartz
  • 1935 - (Sep) Lovecraft writes "The Disinterment (fiction)" with Duane W. Rimel
  • 1935 - (Oct) Lovecraft writes "The Diary of Alonzo Typer (fiction)" with William Lumley
  • 1935 - (Nov) Lovecraft writes "The Haunter of the Dark (fiction)"
  • 1935 - (late) Lovecraft writes "The Diary of Alonzo Typer (fiction)" with William Lumley
  • 1935-1936 Lovecraft travels extensively in New York, Charleston NC, Washington DC, and Philadelphia PA.
  • 1936 - (Jan) Lovecraft writes "In the Walls of Eryx (fiction)" with Kenneth Sterling
  • 1936 - Henry Kuttner and Lovecraft begin correspondence.
  • 1936 - (Jun 11) Robert E. Howard's mother has fallen into a fatal coma from which she would never awaken, and Robert E. Howard shoots himself in despair; his mother dies shortly afterward. The news dispirits Lovecraft, who himself would be dead within a year.
  • 1936 - (Autumn) Lovecraft writes "The Night Ocean (fiction)" with R.H. Barlow
  • 1936 - Sonia remarries Dr. Nathaniel Abraham Davis, as Sonia Haft Davis.
  • 1937 - Fritz Leiber and Lovecraft begin correspondence.
  • 1937 - (early; Mar 10) Lovecraft falls ill and is diagnosed with intestinal cancer.
  • 1937 - (early) Before his death, Lovecraft appoints Robert H. Barlow as executor of his estate, without informing anyone else.
  • 1937 - (Mar 15) Lovecraft dies from intestinal cancer complicated by malnutrition.
  • 1937 - (mid) Robert H. Barlow attempts to execute Lovecraft's will by collecting his affects, and donating them (where appropriate) to the Brown University archives. Clark Ashton Smith, unaware of the situation, suspects Barlow of theft, and denounces him publicly and vehemently.
  • 1937 - (late) August Derleth and Donald Wandrei begin work on a compilation of Lovecraft's best stories, first of its kind, but discover that no existing publisher will take a chance on such an obscure author. Realizing they would need to publish the volume themselves, Arkham House publishing is born. The volume is offered at pre-order for only US$5.00, only 150 buyers express interest.
  • 1937? - Robert H. Barlow, discouraged, bows out of his role as executor of Lovecraft's estate.
  • 1939 - The Outsider and Others, Arkham House's first and original compilation of Lovecraft stories, is publicly released in its first and only edition of 1268 copies.
• 1940s and beyond
  • 1944 - Arkham House finally sells the last copy of The Outsider and Others, while Lovecraft's posthumous reputation begins to spread by word-of-mouth. During this time, Arkham House itself has begun printing new collections of Lovecraft stories, and collections of other weird fiction.
  • 1945 - Sonia hears of Lovecraft's death.
  • 1946 - Sonia's third husband dies. Sonia would eventually learn of Lovecraft's failure to sign the divorce papers, and discover to her horror that her third marriage was technically bigamous.
  • 1948 - (Mar 16) Arthur C. Clarke writes to Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, and asks about Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories, presenting Dunsany with a copy of "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath"; this is the first known instance of Dunsany hearing of Lovecraft; Dunsany's response seems enthusiastic. (*)
  • 1951 - Robert H. Barlow, fearing that one of his disgruntled students is about to publicize his homosexuality, commits suicide.
  • 1952 - (Mar 28) Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany writes to August Derleth, asking for more information about Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories, expressing a great deal of interest in reading more of them. (*)
  • 1961 - (Aug 14) Clark Ashton Smith dies.
  • 1963 - One of the first feature films based on Lovecraft's fiction, The Haunted Palace (1963 film), is finished and released by Roger Corman, who had run out of stories by Edgar Allan Poe to continue his wildly popular series of loose, low-budget Poe adaptations starring horror icon Vincent Price; because Lovecraft was still relatively unknown, the film's story is credited to "Edgar Allen Poe", and given a title taken from a poem by Poe, though the story itself is a loose adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". The film's success and Lovecraft's growing reputation among horror fans would be followed in later decades by many more low-budget Lovecraft film adaptations of wildly varying quality.
  • 1972 - Sonia H. Davis dies in an LA rest home.
  • 1975 - Chaosium, one of the first and oldest Role-Playing Game manufacturers, is founded.
  • 1981 - Chaosium, after commissioning game designer Sandy Petersen to work on a horror-themed Role-Playing Game, while Petersen was about to propose an expansion for Chaosium's Runequest RPG set in the Dreamlands and realizing the potential for a game based on Lovecraft's fiction, publishes the first edition of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
  • 1985 - Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna collaborate on Reanimator (1985 film), starring Jeffrey Combs and Barbra Crampton, the first in a series of ultra-violent, low-budget gore black-comedy/horror films based on various Lovecraft stories, including two sequels to this popular entry in the series, made by the film-makers either as a team, or separately.